Whitby

We hired a car in York and made our way to the coast, emerging, via some incredibly narrow roads, at Robin Hoods Bay (or, at least, at the Pay-and-Display car park at the top of the hill).

Today, it takes five hours to travel from Sherwood Forest to Robin Hoods Bay by public transport, and presumably it took quite a bit longer in the 14th century, when Robin Hood was actually (or, maybe not actually) alive. So it’s probably safe to assume the place doesn’t have much to do with him or his merry band of outlaws, other than a name.

It was, though, a picturesque tangle of narrow streets leading down to a small cove with a few fishing boats, a couple of pubs and a heap of shops selling all manner of twee nick-nacks.

Whitby, just up the coast, was different. Bigger than we expected, and a bit brasher - it has Pleasureland, Funland and Fun City all in a row on the waterfront - it was good fun.

We walked up the hill to Whitby Abbey, part inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula tale, and window-shopped for Whitby Jet. Jet is a black gemstone, apparently now largely forgotten beyond Whitby, related to coal and made popular by the original influencer, Queen Victoria. It’s not every gemstone that will burn if you set fire to it.

Friday evening in Whitby was pretty hectic, and we enjoyed a few drinks watching the sun go down over the beautiful and historic - yet bustling - old port.

Our last Whitby experience was a day out on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

We travelled from Whitby to Grosmont, where we had a look around, then walked about six kilometres to Goathland on a track following a previous railway alignment. It was incredibly peaceful walking through some wonderful scenery for a few hours.

With moorland topping the hills above us, black-headed sheep dotting the lush fields, a multitude of small bubbling creeks all around, and the occasional walkers with their dogs, it was all rather quintessentially English.

Goathland was the fictional town of Aidensfield in the television series “Heartbeat”, and the magnificent Goathland Railway Station has featured in the Harry Potter movies and a host of other productions.

We continued our train experience on to Pickering, enjoying the varied countryside all the way, then returned to Whitby.Read more